Expect institutional investors to increase their hedge fund allocations by as much as 50% over the next couple of years, according to one finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Christopher Geczy, who heads Wharton’s alternative investments certificate program, said recent high-profile hedge fund meltdowns “do not immutably change the longer-term outlook” for the industry, and expects institutions to up their current 10% allocation to hedge funds to between 12.5% to 15%.

Patrick Egan, founder of Attalus Capital, which manages a $3 billion fund of hedge funds for institutional investors, added that institutions are increasingly moving into “active management” of alternative investments to achieve the actuarial rate of returns needed to pay for their employee's retirement.

However, David Lees, a senior partner of myCIO Wealth Partners, a consulting firm, warned that the risk of losing substantial amounts of capital in the alternatives space has also increased versus other investments.

“If you chose well, you can do very well, if you chose wrong, you can do substantially worse than average,” he said.

From the current issue of

Forecasting markets has always been fraught with danger for analysts and traders alike. MODERN TRADER has dedicated issues detailing the pitfalls of following so-called markets gurus. Too often these market experts are allowed to flaunt their winning forecasts and let their losers fade into the background.